Worse than Trump and Clinton

Many have asked me, why an open-minded, politically moderate individual like myself, would vote for Dr. Mark Plaster for Maryland’s third Congressional district. Forget about disappointment in the partisan politics—I do my best to ignore political affiliation and to examine information. Mark Plaster, a former emergency physician for 30 years, is the owner of a successful international publishing company. He’s a veteran. He has a law degree. Both of these accomplishments show he knows of the terrors of war and terrors of the legal environment. Plaster—running on pro-business and pro-veteran platforms—is running for Maryland’s third Congressional district. His health care stance has both socially liberal and fiscally conservative features.

When I am asked about why I support Dr. Plaster, I respectfully return the question to my friends: Why vote for the incumbent John Sarbanes? I feel duty bound to vote—not voting because of extreme disappointment in the quality of the candidates solves nothing. But Sarbanes is more disappointing than the presidential race.

Trump discusses rigged elections more than Al Gore and Hillary stays silent like she’s going to say a Bushism. Congressman Sarbanes reaped the benefits rigged elections this past decade through gerrymandering and his name recognition from his father’s congressional and state campaigns, which is the convolution of lines securing his election. He’s admitted to the problem years ago.

Governor Larry Hogan, who has a 70% approval rating statewide and won Sarbanes’ district, has formed an independent commission to address redistricting reform. Sarbanes feels redistricting reform should be addressed federally, leaving his Congressional district, the most gerrymandered district in the United States, looking like a strange or exotic snake. A presidential candidate can only be president twice and therefore can only rig elections twice maximally. John Sarbanes has ran for a gerrymandered office five times. The current Congressional district created by a Democratic-controlled state house will likely exist for two more Congressional races.

But this isn’t the only tomfoolery benefiting Sarbanes. Since the topic of veteran issues emerged, both Presidential candidates have claimed a commitment to veterans. John Sarbanes voting record is antithetical to veteran support. He has among the lowest ratings regarding veteran issues in the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, his district has a large veteran population and historical sites Fort Meade and the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. Dr. Mark Plaster, a navy veteran, is committed to fixing veteran affairs.

Our national debt is absurd. One person alone—whether it’s Trump or Clinton—isn’t qualified or able to fix an entire nation’s debt. No one has dealt with a trillion dollar deficit ever before. However, Sarbanes should stay away from America’s budget. He received between 0% and 30% regarding his business policies from nonpartisan organizations, such as the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the National Small Business Association.

But if you’d rather ignore the ratings and examine Sarbanes’ policies, his favorite is undoubtedly campaign finance reform. He’s calling for taxpayers to match campaign donations by 6 times. Meanwhile, throughout his career Sarbanes raised $5.5 Million in contributions alone. If his bill passed, he’d have up to $33 Million for his campaign; $27.5 Million would come from taxes.

Not wanting to vote for the presidential candidates is understandable, but not voting and completely despairing is an inappropriate and disproportionate response. Electing representatives is our responsibility. Voting for a political party is a choice, but voting for a candidate is a privilege.

About The Author

Nathan is a Jewish American-Iranian who studied in Israel for three years following high school. He graduated from Touro College’s Lander College with a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology. Afterwards, he was a research assistant with Stanford University’s Psychophysiology Lab and the University of Maryland. He hopes to pursue psychology in graduate school.

1 Comment

Voting and representative government is indeed a privilege. Compare life with them against a synopsis of privileged authority written by Mark Twain in that sharp political satire “A Connecticut Yankee in King Author’s Court” (Yes, this novel is deeper than the movie or cartoon version):

“The talk of these meek people had a strange enough sound in a formerly American ear. They were freemen, but they could not leave the estates of their lord or their bishop without his permission; they could not prepare their own bread, but must have their corn ground and their bread baked at his mill and his bakery, and pay roundly for the same; they could not sell a piece of their own property without paying him a handsome percentage of the proceeds, nor buy a piece of somebody else’s without remembering him in cash for the privilege; they had to harvest his grain for him gratis, and be ready to come at a moment’s notice, leaving their own crop to destruction by the threatened storm; they had to let him plant fruit trees in their fields, and then keep their indignation to themselves when his heedless fruit-gatherers trampled the grain around the trees; they had to smother their anger when his hunting parties galloped through their fields laying waste the result of their patient toil; they were not allowed to keep doves themselves, and when the swarms from my lord’s dovecote settled on their crops they must not lose their temper and kill a bird, for awful would the penalty be; when the harvest was at last gathered, then came the procession of robbers to levy their blackmail upon it: first the Church carted off its fat tenth, then the king’s commissioner took his twentieth, then my lord’s people made a mighty inroad upon the remainder; after which, the skinned freeman had liberty to bestow the remnant in his barn, in case it was worth the trouble; there were taxes, and taxes, and taxes, and more taxes, and taxes again, and yet other taxes–upon this free and independent pauper, but none upon his lord the baron or the bishop, none upon the wasteful nobility or the all-devouring Church; if the baron would sleep unvexed, the freeman must sit up all night after his day’s work and whip the ponds to keep the frogs quiet; if the freeman’s daughter–but no, that last infamy of monarchical government is unprintable; and finally, if the freeman, grown desperate with his
tortures, found his life unendurable under such conditions, and sacrificed it and fled to death for mercy and refuge, the gentle Church condemned him to eternal fire, the gentle law buried him at midnight at the cross-roads with a stake through his back, and his master the baron or the bishop confiscated all his property and turned his widow and his orphans out of doors.”

Taking the time to vote sounds better than having to stay up at night and whip a pond to keep the frogs quiet so the Baron could sleep.